Of Mice and Men
Today we finished reading at the end of Chapter 2. Please have chapter two questions to me on Wednesday. I will be out at a conference tomorrow. Ms. Shearer will begin reading with you from the beginning of Chapter 3.
Below find the cover from a Japanese edition of the book. I liked the simple, yet provocative nature of the drawing.
MYTHOLOGY
Today we shared our experiences with the use of repetition as a memory tool. We want to keep in mind that the use of repetition in the wording and the plot of orally reproduced stories is a result of these stories being easy to pass on from one generation to the next. We also noted that lyrical structure and rhyme were ways of making this happen and related these to the use of mnemonic devices.
Next we began note taking on Mesopotamian myths. They are found below. Your homework is to look these over.
PHILOSOPHY FRIDAY
Today we will be looking at where the following philosophers and their ideas coorespond with the books we have read…
We might read the pages on Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle and follow up next Friday.
Parmenides by Wolfgang Schmidt (?)
WHAT IS MYTHOLOGY?
Homework for Monday: Tell the PINK ELEPHANT JOKE to someone you know and be ready to discuss how it went on Monday. Hint - REPETITION.
OF MICE AND MEN
We left off on pages 22-23 today. Please have the Chapter One questions as homework tomorrow. And if you needed any further reasons for reading Of Mice and Men…
… understanding advertising!
LISTENING TASK
We talked about writing from a tree map providing a good organizational structure, but at the same time perhaps making our writing sound formulaic and choppy. We went over some revision ideas using the pieces we wrote as a group yesterday.
Tomorrow we will begin a listening task about last night’s Presidential debate. We will listen to the information source (both candidates closing remarks) and take notes tomorrow. You will have Monday and Tuesday in class to write the piece, which will be due on Wednesday. I will need access to a digital copy (save work into your network folder) so that we can look it over as a class.
WHAT IS MYTHOLOGY?
We have been defining the term “mythology” using the first chapter of Kenneth Davis’s book Don’t Know Much About World Myths. One of the ideas we discussed is the passing on of ideas via an oral tradition. We did an activity that demonstrated the difficulty of remembering details when passing information on by word of mouth.
Your homework for tomorrow is to create a very short story of two to three sentences that you think will be easy to remember and retell after one hearing. It should use repetition, imagery, or some other technique to make it easy to retell and remember. We will try the stories tomorrow to see how they work. Please type and print your stories so they are easy to read.
Below find the notes from class. You should look over and be familiar with them.
OF MICE AND MEN
Today we will begin reading Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. The story is set in Depression Era California and revolves around the story of Lennie and George. Please find links to all of the chapter questions below. They are all short answer.
Remember that each set of chapter questions are due the class after we finish that chapter in class. There will be at home reading assignments for this book.
MYTHOLOGY
Today we looked at some of the symbols from science that you brought in. We looked at symbols, because we are going to explore the concepts of ALLEGORY and METAPHOR. A metaphor is a way of describing something by comparing it another thing that has a trait that one would like to highlight. A famous metaphor (in the form of a simile) is that march comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. An allegory expresses meaning through the use of symbolic representation. The difference between an allegory and a symbol is that an allegory is a complete narrative that conveys abstract ideas to get a point across, while a symbol is a representation of an idea or concept that can have a different meaning throughout a literary work.
For our purposes, think of allegory as a big metaphor, and a symbol as a small metaphor. In class we read the fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper as an example of allegory.
Aesop by Diego Velasquez
We also continued our reading from World Myths. There is no homework for tonight.
